Migration from NT to Windows 2003 and Exchange from 5.5 to 2003

Event Review: Migrating from Windows NT Server 4.0 to Windows Server 2003 (Session ITPROADD-02)

 

Event Review: Upgrading from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange Server 2003 (Session ITPROEXC-02)

Let’s Provision Exchange 2007 in 15 minutes or 4-Steps

 Before I begin, let me tell you that this is done for provisioning Exchange 2007 server for test labs. But idea can be easily extended and customized by Production provisioning in same time…Maximum 15 minutes. I’m won’t be surprise if someone can do all these things in one step. But then I’m happy with 15 mins.

Step first

1. Create OU

You can review and download code from here

Screen shot is below

2. Create Users

you can review and download code from here

BulkUser-SampleCSVFile

3. Create Storage group. Then create database and mount it. All in one step

you can review and download code from here

4. Enable Mailbox for choice of yours Mailbox database

you can review and download code from here

For creating of active directory you would like to refer my http://techstarts.wordpress.com/category/active-directory/

I was inspired to do write the blog by Evan from Microsoft http://blogs.technet.com/evand/. Many Thanks to him.

Mgmt Shell or EMS whatever you call ==>

 

It is management shell or Exchange management shell, it nothing less than magic for anyone who will be responsible for exchange operations going forward exchange 2007 ==>

Get Exchange Related Services

Get-Service | Where{$_.name -like “msexchange*”} | sort-object status | Format-Table –Wrap

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Generally syntax to get help in powershell

get-help about -role *mailbox*

get-help *mailbox*

Get-command -name *mailbox

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Few command I came across could be helpful

Get-MailboxStatistics | Sort-Object totalitemsize -Descending | Select-Object -First 3

===== 

Basics of Powershell:

[PS] C:\Program Files\Support Tools>.\dcdiag.exe | where{$_ -like “*passed*”}

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test Connectivity

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test Replications

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test NCSecDesc

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test NetLogons

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test Advertising

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test KnowsOfRoleHolders

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test RidManager

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test MachineAccount

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test Services

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test ObjectsReplicated

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test frssysvol

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test frsevent

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test kccevent

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test systemlog

         ……………………. WS03R2EEEXCHLCS passed test VerifyReferences

         ……………………. ForestDnsZones passed test CrossRefValidation

         ……………………. ForestDnsZones passed test CheckSDRefDom

         ……………………. DomainDnsZones passed test CrossRefValidation

         ……………………. DomainDnsZones passed test CheckSDRefDom

         ……………………. Schema passed test CrossRefValidation

         ……………………. Schema passed test CheckSDRefDom

         ……………………. Configuration passed test CrossRefValidation

         ……………………. Configuration passed test CheckSDRefDom

         ……………………. contoso passed test CrossRefValidation

         ……………………. contoso passed test CheckSDRefDom

         ……………………. contoso.com passed test Intersite

         ……………………. contoso.com passed test FsmoCheck

 

$Netdiagresult=./netdiag

$Netdiagresult | where{$_ -like “*failed*” -or $_ -like “*skipped*”}

 

 

My old powershell blog is also present at http://techstarts.wordpress.com and I’m also blogging at http://vmzare.wordpress.com

 

 

NEW THINGS AND JUST DISCOVERED THINGS

One database per storage group is design requirement of CCR.

/PrepareLegacyExchangepermission

Use this parameter only if you have servers that are running Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange

server 2003 in your organization

If you move mailbox using either EMC or EMS log file is created under C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Logging\MigrationLogs

Exchange 2007 Mailbox cannot be modified using ADUC, there are not extended in ADUC

Active-Active cluster is no longer supported

Single copy cluster is available in enterprise edition

Also CCR is not available in Standard edition

At registry level you can check what roles are installed on the exchange server by parsing to hklm/software/Microsoft/exchange/v8.0

Various Switches and information in Brief

Why Run Setup /PrepareLegacyExchangePermissions ?

In short for Recipient update service (RUS) to function properly, you will need to run this switch prior to preparing schema. This should be run in a domain where domainprep was run. Exchange 2007 has introduced new property sets, these property sets can be control by recipient administrators only (new role introduced in exchange 2007). In order to give permission to RUS, you will need to run this switch. More detail explanation could be found at

What /Preparead does in general?

Checks schema is updated

Assign specific permission throughout configuration container

Creates OU by name Microsoft Exchange Security group in the root domain and creates following Universal security group within it

1. Exchange recipient Administrators

2. Exchange Organization Administrators

3. Exchange Servers

4. Exchange view-only Administrators

5. Exchange public folder Administrators (New in SP1)

6. Exchange legacy interop.

7. Creates routing group and administrative group with name of the server in bracket random identifier.

8. And this command also prepares local, in means you don’t need to run preparedomain in this domain again

What /Preparedomain does in general?

Assigns permissions to 3, 2, authenticated users and mailbox administrators on domain containers

If this is new organization Exchange system object container is created and authenticated user, 2, 3 are granted permissions on it

Creates a group Exchange install domain Servers. In Exchange system object container and add as member of 3

Assigns permissions to 1 and 3 at domain level

Exchange 2007 Notes 4th Oct 2007

Memory Requirement:512 megabytes is the recommended minimum for any exchange role.

Software requirement: All server running exchange 2007 must also be running on windows 2003 SP1 or above 64-bit editions.

Upgradations:If you are planning to upgrade your DC and GC servers it would make sense to implement them on 64bit hardware, as any organization whose AD database is in excess of 3GB will see significant improvement in performance from exchange perspective.

For example one 64 Bit dual core Global Catalog server with 14 GB RAM can handled work load of 11 32-bit equivalent GC servers and so support 20000 mailboxes.

Client requirement: Outlook anywhere (RPC over HTTPS) will require outlook 2003.

If you do have legacy clients in use, specifying this in the installation process on the server enables things like public folders – which are not required for Outlook 2007 because in Outlook 2007 this is handled by web services for outlook 2007clients . Specifically, calendaring for Outlook 2003 requires some system folders, which are special public folders, to support the publishing of free/busy schedule information – which in turn allows users to create appointments with one another

Mixed Environment: CAS provides links to the back end servers when accessing mailbox using OWA. However OWA experience will differ based on what is the backend server version is. To experience OWA 2007 both front end and backend servers should be Exchange 2007.

Installation from cmd Prompt:Select H for Hub Transport, C for Client Access, E for Edge Transport, M for Mailbox or U for Unified Messaging. You can also install only the management tools by using the option T for your server role

Prepare Ad & Prepare Schema:Note that the difference is that prepare schema only modifies the schema in preparation for installation. It does not create the necessary security groups in the forest root required to deploy Exchange Server. If you run prepare AD without having previously prepared the schema, the installation routine will prepare the schema at the same time as it prepares Active Directory. In both cases, you must be in the same site and same domain at the schema operations master to run setup with these switches.To prepare active directory for exchange installation, requires Schema and domain admin permissions.

Mailbox Migrations:Note that you cannot use the Exchange Server 2003 Move Mailbox Wizard to move mailboxes from Exchange Server 2007 to Exchange Server 200x servers, nor can you use the 200x wizard to move mailboxes from Exchange Server 200x to Exchange 2007 servers

List of EMS Commands

Remove-AcceptedDomain

New-AcceptedDomain

You can see all EXchange commands by using get-excommand. note that there is no tab completion available for this command. Majority of exchange command starts with

• Enable-
• Remove-
• Set-
• get-
• remove-

Set-AcceptedDomain

Get-AcceptedDomain

So what if you don’t how to use it and not smart enough to figure out help, no problem. see quick use of get-help

Exchange 2007 Notes 3rd Oct 2007

Edge transport cannot be combined with any other role. However you install ISA on edge transport server.

To enable the edge server to pass message to appropriate HUB server, it requires recipient information, this is provided by (Active directory application mode)ADAM. This communication happens over 1389 LDAP port and is read-only at the Edge and one way communication. LDAP connection is secured by the ADAM credentials stored in the Edge subscription xml file.

The edge transport servers ADAM is kept up to date using EDGE synch, a synchronization tool, with the subset of AD recipient information that you have made available.

Edge synch replicates following data from Active directory to ADAM (one-way only)

1. Send connector configuration
2. Accepted domains
3. Remote domains
4. Safe sender lists
5. and Recipient

Communication between HTS and ETS happens using SMTP over TLS and between HTS server using kerberos+TLS. Kerberos cannot be used between ETS and HTS since there is no AD at ETS side.

By default physical IP network layer is used to route message between hubs or between a Hub Server and appropriate MBS.Exchange topology is AD Based and many organization can rely on default connectors, especially if existing routing group designed was based on Active Directory sites. AD sites provide a logical layer that defines a physical grouping of the servers and provided back-off path if direct relay fails.Direct relay is Hub-to-Hub and Inter-site, it is using SMTP, intra-site uses MAPI communication, which is RPC based.

Mailbox server that also host HTS will utilized the locally installed HTS rather than HTS in same site. Such server is called co-located HTS.

All email are routed through even if the mail destined for mailbox resides on the same server as the originator’s mailbox. HTS will automatically load-balance within site, which was not true pre-2007 where we had bridge head servers.

A major responsibility of the Exchange Server 2007 Hub Transport role was to provide support for compliance – that is, the ability to retain messages or modify messages in accordance with corporate policy or legal requirements.

Event sinks that is ability to fire event when something happens, generally a Virus is made quite simple in Exchange 2007

EXchange 2007 Notes – some unknown facts

• Only the Enterprise edition can scale to 50 databases per server; the Standard edition is limited to 5 databases per server. 

• Single copy clusters and cluster continuous replication are only supported on the Enterprise Edition, However Microsoft has made an exception in the 32-bit version code to allow SCC and CCR to be used for non-production use on the 32-bit version, even though the 32-bit version is the Standard Edition
  

• You can use the 32-bit version in production to administer exchange 2007 servers from Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP 

• You can use the 32-bit version in production to extend your Active Directory service schema

• Microsoft has made an exception in the 32-bit version code to allow SCC and CCR to be used for non-production use on the 32-bit version, even though the 32-bit version is the Standard Edition 

• By using the Exchange Management Shell, you can also see how many days, hours, minutes, seconds, and yes, milliseconds, are left on the 120-day trial period. Use the Get-ExchangeServer cmdlet, and look for the Edition and RemainingTrialPeriod values.

Notes on Exchange 2007 15-09-2007

What type of AD topology allows you to separate the administration of Exchange server from that of Active directory ?

== > It is Resource Forest topology, while in case of Cross forest topology you have EXchange in both the forest, so if two organizations have to communicate with each other they should have Edge servers in both the forest.

New administrative roles introduced in EXchange 2007

1. EXchange Organization Administration
2. EXchange Server Administration
3. EXchange recipient Administration
4. EXchange Read-Only Administration

 

• You cannot use Exchange system manager to manage EXchange 2007 and vice-versa.
• EMC: EXchange Management console
• EMS: EXchange Management Shell

 

Transition Path

In Transition you need to introduce Exchange 2007 server into existing organization and move mailbox from 2000/2003 to 2007.

You can transition from Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007, provided Exchange organization is in 2000/2003 Native mode. If the organization is in mixed-mode transition path is not possible. When you transition to 2007, make a point to bring in Client Access Server role first, then other roles on the same lines are front-end must be upgraded first, then back-end.

Migration

You can migrate from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2007 however in this case you have to create new organization and put Exchange 2007 into that organization. This path has lots of challenges compare to Transition path, So simple alternative will be to upgrade to Exchange 2003 and then transition to Exchange 2007.

In-place upgrade is not supported and technically many not be possible, since previous of Exchange never came with 64 bits.